all that you are is beautiful, child
by thingyoulovemost
Summary: in which Snow and Charming finally have a moment to talk about their daughter, post 2x09.


**A/N: So this is something I've had in my head for a while but haven't found the inspiration to write it until now. This is a very short fic that I may expand if there's interest from anyone. But this is the first time I've written something for Once, so I hope you guys like it! thanks for reading :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Once Upon A Time. that all comes from the genius brains of Horowitz and Kitsis, I'm just playing with their characters.**

It's late on the night of her and Emma's return to Storybrooke, and she and Charming have just turned in for the night after catching up with their friends for most of the day. Snow's just happy they finally have more than five minutes to just _breathe_ and ignore the craziness that is their life, if only for a moment. She's deep in thought, mouth set in a frown as she looks up at the ceiling and thinks again to the moment when Emma was ready to sacrifice herself to save Snow. She'd almost lost her daughter when she'd barely just gotten her back. She remembers the absolute terror she'd felt when that evil witch had plunged her hand into Emma's chest, and how, for those brief moments, her world had stopped turning. And then the shock she'd felt as Emma summoned something from within her that none of them even knew she possessed and blasted Cora away with the purest magic Snow had ever seen. It was brighter, more pure than even the magic brought by True Love's Kiss. It both awed and terrified Snow to know how powerful her daughter is, and they don't even know what all she's capable of. And she can't forget, all magic comes with a price. What's Emma's? Snow tries to assuage her fears by telling herself that the magic Emma possesses could never be dark; she's magic in it's purest form. She does come from true love, after all.

With that thought, Snow glances over at Charming. His eyes are closed, but even if he really is sleeping, she has to talk to him.

"Charming? Are you awake?" she asks.

He nods lightly and turns his head towards her as he cracks an eye open. "Truthfully I haven't slept since you two have been gone, and now that you're back I'm afraid if I fall asleep you'll be gone again when I wake up. Plus, the nightmares from the sleeping curse haven't helped things much, either."

Snow smiles sadly. "I know the feeling," she says. She strokes his cheek lightly. "I still can't believe you did that."

"I would have done anything to help get you and Emma back." he says, conviction in his steady gaze.

"I know." Snow replies, kissing him softly.

"So, what's keeping you awake?" he asks after a moment, rubbing circles on her arm.

"Emma," she replies. Understanding fills his eyes. She'd filled him in on their journey in their former homeland, including their harrowing encounter with Cora. Suddenly, she realizes something.

"You know, with everything that's happened since the curse was broken, we haven't really had time to talk about her." she says.

"What do you mean?" Charming replies.

"We haven't gotten to talk about her. Who she looks like, her personality." She pauses. "She's so like you," she says with a smile, which Charming returns proudly. "She gets that blonde hair from you. Although the curls are definitely from me." Charming chuckles softly and says, "That's very true."

Snow continues, "And she looks exactly like you when she scrunches her forehead, she gets those same little lines," she laughs. "She has your nose, too, I think. And your smile. And your eyes, a little bit. They're more blue than green, but they do have a little green in them. And her eyebrows arch just like yours do."

Charming smiles softly, tearing up a bit as Snow keeps speaking. "And she gets her newfound penchant for sword fighting from you." They laugh together.

"You're quite the warrior yourself, my dear." Charming says with a laugh as Snow playfully whacks his arm.

She then sighs sadly, "You know, she looks quite a bit like my mother did." Charming grasps her hand tightly.

"Although," Snow says, "She does have my cheekbones. And, I'll admit, my stubbornness too," to which Charming laughs. She sighs, "She's so beautiful, Charming. And so _good. _After everything she's been through in her life, through all the terrible things she had to deal with she's so kind, and wonderful and just _good._ Her heart is so pure. I remember when I first met her as Mary Margaret, I was struck by her goodness. How she's taken care of this town. How she stayed despite everything in her telling her to run; she stayed because she wanted to make sure Henry was okay." Her heart warms immediately at the thought of her grandson. Thinking of Henry reminds her of something, and she laughs.

"What?" Charming asks.

"Oh, it's just when Emma had first come to live with me as Mary Margaret, one day she was telling me about Henry's theory about the curse and who was who. She told me he thought I was her mother and I remember jokingly telling her she has my chin, and she really does." She smiles sadly as she thinks about how blind they all were to the truth that was right in front of their eyes, a truth little Henry saw all along. Her heart warms immediately at the thought of her grandson.

"I still can't believe our baby is a mother herself," Charming says as he too smiles, thinking of Henry and the time he spent bonding with him while Snow and Emma were in the Enchanted Forest, teaching him how to sword fight like a prince, among other things.

"I can't believe it, either. That's when I really feel those 28 years the most, when I look at Henry and I see just how much of her life we've missed. Her childhood, her adolescence, everything. I think about how we don't even know what she looked like at one, or five, or ten. We don't even know what all she's been through. Who knows how much pain we could have prevented her from bearing?" Snow finishes, her voice cracking with grief.

Though he's about to cry himself, Charming cups her cheek in his hand and says, "Hey, Snow, we're together now. As much as I'd love to, we can't get that time back. And you said it yourself, Emma is such a wonderful person. Everything she's been through she's risen above and come out stronger for it. And we have Henry, now, too. And we're together, and I will do everything in my power to make sure our family is never separated again. And we haven't missed everything. There's so many more moments we'll have together. A whole lifetime of them. Forever."

Snow smiles at him through her tears and kisses him deeply. After a moment of contemplative silence, she says, "You know, Emma puts up this tough exterior with those walls of hers. But once she lets you past them, you see she's got the biggest heart. And she's brave, and strong, and so smart."

Charming looks at her lovingly. "She's kind of amazing, isn't she?"

Snow smiles proudly. "Yeah," she says. "She's incredible. And she's ours."


End file.
